Industrial Communication Guide

3.6. PROFIBUS The name Profibus stands for PROcess FIeld BUS. This fieldbus is maintained and developed by the PROFIBUS User Organization (PNO) or by PROFIBUS&PROFINET International (PI). Development of the Profibus was started in 1987 and there is currently a family of several fieldbus variants. Since Siemens uses Profibus as the cen- tral bus for its controllers and these have a very large market share in Europe, this fieldbus is very widespread in Europe. Profibus is used in the manufacturing and process industry, especially in the area of traffic engineering and energy production/distribution.

Two variants of Profibus have been developed for manufacturing and process automation: Profibus DP (Decentralized Periphery) and Profibus PA (Process Automation). The two variants differ in terms of cable, plug configuration and interface. Profibus PA can also be used in the EX area.

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